Step 229

I will not blame another for my pain.

TODAY’S IDEA REPRESENTS A TREMENDOUS SHIFT in understanding. It must be born of Knowledge to have true effectiveness, however. Its meaning is not immediately apparent, for you will soon find that there are many circumstances in which others seem completely responsible for your pain. It will be very difficult, given your habitual thinking and the assumptions upon which you live, to deny that others are indeed the cause of your pain. This, however, is not how Knowledge views you, and you must learn not to view yourself in this way.

PAIN IS ALWAYS A DECISION THAT YOU MAKE in response to any stimuli in your environment. The body will have physical pain if it is so stimulated, but that is merely a sensory response. It is not the true pain that hurts you. The pain that hurts you is the crown of thorns of your own ideas and assumptions, your own misgivings and misinformation and your own unforgiveness towards yourself and the world. This produces a pain both within your mind and upon your body as well. It is this pain we wish to alleviate this day.

THEREFORE, CONSIDER TODAY’S IDEA AS A FORM OF REMEDY against pain. If another is the cause of your pain, you have no remedy except to attack or to change the other person. Even your attempt to change them for good will be a form of attack, for underneath your altruism will be hatred and resentment. Therefore, there is no remedy for pain if its cause is beyond you. But there is remedy for all pain because Knowledge is with you.

THEREFORE, ALL PAIN MUST BE RECOGNIZED as the result of your own decision. It must be recognized as the result of your own interpretation. You may feel that you have been wronged by another or by the world. This feeling is actually present in your mind, so it need not be denied, but you must look beyond it to its source and to the mechanism for its emergence. To do this, then, you must utilize your own faculties. This will give you great strength. You will be able to do this because Knowledge is with you and because with Knowledge you can do all things that Knowledge asks you to do.

WITHOUT CONDEMNATION, THE WORLD IS SO RELIEVED that it can begin to recover itself. Therefore, upon the hour repeat this idea and consider its meaning. Go deeply within it to discover what it truly holds for you. In your longer practice periods, enter stillness and peace, for without condemnation upon the world and upon yourself, the mind is at peace already.